Kohl’s department store will take over the Mervyns store site in Hayward’s Southland Mall, along with several other Bay Area Mervyns locations, according to retail officials and bankruptcy court records.

Besides Hayward, Kohl’s will open stores at Mervyns sites in Millbrae, San Rafael, Napa and Capitola.

In all, Kohl’s will assume the leases for 31 Mervyns locations in California, as well as some Mervyns stores in Nevada, Texas and Utah, the retailer said.

Other northern and central California locations where a Kohl’s will replace a Mervyns store: Eureka, Lodi, Merced, Rancho Cordova, San Luis Obispo and Ukiah, according to information from Kohl’s.

Hundreds of Mervyns stores will close their doors for good after the Christmas shopping season.

Forever 21 took over a number of Mervyns locations in Southern California.

Neopost will close Hayward operations

Neopost USA will eliminate 240 jobs in the East Bay and close its Bay Area operations.

These job cuts in Hayward, though, don’t result from corporate financial woes. Neopost, which makes equipment and computer services used for mailing and postal operations, is doing well financially. Neopost is a unit of France-based Neopost.

Instead, the staff reductions have materialized because a series of acquisitions in recent years caused the Hayward operations to duplicate other Neopost USA operations, said Peter Lichtgarn, a spokesman for Milford, Conn.-based Neopost.

“The West Coast facility in Hayward will be closed by the end of 2009,” Lichtgarn said.

nation

FCC asked to delay cable, wireless issues

Some Democratic lawmakers have called on outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin not to take up cable regulation or free wireless Internet issues at next week’s agency meeting.

February’s digital-television transition is the FCC’s “most important challenge” and considering unrelated initiatives would be “counterproductive,” the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate commerce committees said in a letter Friday.

Martin, a Republican who must step aside once President-elect Barack Obama installs a new chairman after his inauguration next month, was reviewing the congressional letter, spokesman Matt Nodine said.

Siemens to pay $448.5 billion in fines

Industrial conglomerate Siemens plans to plead guilty and pay at least $448.5 million in fines to settle long-standing corruption charges in the United States, according to court papers filed Friday.

The Justice Department has accused Siemens of making bribes and trying to falsify its corporate books from 2001 to 2007. It has also accused some of the conglomerate’s subsidiaries of bribery, including paying kickbacks to the former Iraqi government to get some of the United Nations Oil-for Food contracts.

Siemens and its subsidiaries in Bangladesh, Venezuela and Argentina have agreed to plead guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Siemens has agreed to pay $448.5 million in fines, with the three subsidiaries paying at least $500,000 each, according to court papers.

Siemens, which makes everything from trains to light bulbs has acknowledged dubious payments to secure business worth up to $1.7 billion around the world.

Detroit papers to slash home delivery

Detroit’s two daily newspapers are leaning toward cutting home delivery to three days a week, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Journal, quoting a person on its Web site whom it didn’t name, said a final decision has not been made. But the newspaper says it’s the “leading scenario” due to be announced Tuesday at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

The papers have separate newsrooms but their business operations are combined under the Detroit Media Partnership.

The Journal said home delivery would be limited to Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with an “abbreviated” print edition available at newsstands on other days. Readers would also be directed to the papers’ Web sites.